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Touch review: XCOM Enemy Unknown iOS edition

This is XCOM exactly as you know it on PC and console, but in a portable form.

For XCOM fans who want to play their favourite little brutal heartbreaker on the go, prepare to read the shortest review I have ever written:

XCOM Enemy Unknown on iOS is the authentic console experience on a handheld touch-screen. It's expensive, but if you love XCOM it's probably worth it. Go buy it now, as long as you have a fairly new device to run it on.

For the rest of you, here is the full-length review.

XCOM Enemy Unknown was a very pleasant surprise from publisher 2K Games. Several classic strategy games had been "reimagined" as shooters, the most recent being the extremely disappointing Syndicate. When 2K unveiled XCOM, a squad-based third-person shooter, the fans were livid. Just give us some classic XCOM, they cried. Don't reinvent it, just polish it up and let us give you our money.

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Bizarrely out of character for the video game industry, 2K gave the fans what they asked for. The squad shooter went back to the drawing board for two years of polishing and tuning, and it's now looking rather awesome, rechristened as The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. In its place we got XCOM Enemy Unknown, launched last year to critical and audience acclaim.

Originally released on Windows PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, that classic isometric-view, turn-based, squad-management game has now come to Apple touch devices, and it is magnificent.

This is the XCOM you love, with nothing compromised, with the temporary exception of multi-player, which will be added later with a free patch. Base management is intact, you can still groom your squad of alien-killing badasses (and give them your friends' names if you are a masochist), and even the character voices have been fully retained.

On top of this, however, is exceptionally good touch-screen integration. Everything works as expected: pinch to zoom in and out, swipe to scroll around the battlefield, and even tap on your deployed soldiers to easily have them act out of sequence. Everything is a tappable icon; when the little red alien face pops up to alert you to the presence of an enemy, you can simply tap it to have your currently selected soldier target it for attack.

Better still, it is very difficult to do the wrong thing by mistake. You can tap around the screen all you like to pick the optimal path for your soldier, but they will not actually move until you touch the "move" icon at the bottom of the screen. The same kind of fail-safes are present for attacking and other functions, as well as choosing construction and research projects back at base.

The only real compromise has been in the visuals, and it is a small one. Levels and character models are slightly less detailed, and textures are a little fuzzier. Still, it looks fine, and you can still differentiate between squad members at a glance. This might not be Infinity Blade, but it's still one nice-looking game considering it's running on a phone or a tablet.

This brings us to the game's only major drawbacks: its size, its hardware requirements, and its price. On a platform where small, quick-to-download games are the norm, XCOM is a behemoth, weighing in at over 3GB. It took me the better part of a day to download on my home wi-fi, perhaps because the App Store is not designed for such large files. Booting the game up, loading times can also be substantial.

Because this is a very hefty game, it also requires an up-to-date iOS device. It requires a minimum of iPad 2, iPhone 4, or 5th generation iPod Touch. If your device is more than a few years old, check the support list very carefully before separating with a chunk of your cash.

It's a substantial chunk, too: $20.99 on the App Store in Australia. iOS is generally the home of 99c games and free-to-play, which makes $21 seem exorbitant, but don't forget that this is a game that is still selling for $80 on console. The iOS version has all of the same content, so it really is quite a good deal.

If you do all of your gaming on the go and can't bear to sit down at a PC or TV to play a game, this is a rare opportunity to play a true AAA title on a device that fits in your pocket or your bag. It's a remarkable technological achievement - it runs smoothly, has never crashed in the hours I've played it - and simply an amazing game.

Swallow back your "three dollars is expensive" mobile gaming reflex and consider investing in this modern classic.

Got a favourite mobile or indie game that you think DexX should review? Suggest it by sending an email to SPYourTurn@gmail.com.

- James "DexX" Dominguez

DexX is on Twitter: @jamesjdominguez

6 comments so far

That's where things need to change in the App store: price mentality. Granted I have that myself, but I should be trying to justify the buys for bigger games and compare them to console versions.

I think I'd prefer to play XCOM on the 360 (want to purchase it) but if iOS gaming is going to move to games like this, I'll think about purchasing more.

Commenter

Joka

Date and time

June 25, 2013, 9:14AM

Well when most ios games are 15 minutes of gameplay padded out with difficulty arcs and in-app purchases to skip over said arcs, then $1.99 is probably a fair price.

This, however is different - this game isn't padded and is well worth over $20.

My hesitation is I don't really like gaming on a tablet...

Commenter

AarghZombies

Date and time

June 25, 2013, 9:37AM

I'll admit the $21 price point made me wince initially but when you step back and consider it, it's actually a pretty fair price for what you're getting - a full modern game normally played on the PC or console. Between this and BGEE, I guess I really am going to have to upgrade my venerable old iPad 1.

Commenter

Kit

Date and time

June 25, 2013, 9:48AM

for ps3 users it's also free on ps+ at the moment

Commenter

tailspinner

Date and time

June 25, 2013, 11:15AM

Im a little bit annoyed about this since I paid around $80 for this new and then paid extra for the DLC. Playing x-com through I remember thinking to my self how well the game would work for Ipad . A free version of this at least would be appreciated for those who went out early and paid a premium for the game upon release. The $60 difference is a lot and is a bit of a slap in the face to those who went out and supported the game early. Found the same issue with the walking dead becoming free/ very cheap on xbox live

Commenter

Tonks

Date and time

June 25, 2013, 3:15PM

Wait 6 months to a year and the price will be significantly reduced on PC (It is now)

I would think it was a slap ion the face if they were released simultaneously, and the iPad was 60 dollars cheaper.